The morning was a scattered mix of packing, showering, eating, charging, and random phone calls before we finally had it together enough to figure out a ride back to the trail. A trail angel and her daughter gave the five of us rides back up and we got going at 11:30am, a bit later than planned.

It was chilly and we didn't stop to chat much. As we got closer to the peak of Mount Baden-Powell the snow drifts and ice patches increased and the trail became harder to follow. We missed one switchback and had to follow existing tracks where the trail was lost in a number of places.

We finally reached the ridge only to be treated with biting wind and a rapidly changing view as clouds flowed over the ridges and valleys. It was too cold to stop for long, however, and Loopy and Raptor headed on. Rickets, never one to pass up a summit, led Eeyore and I on the spur trail to the Baden-Powell summit. We didn't stay too long as there was no view at all and it was bitterly cold.

Back on the ridge-riding PCT wasn't much better. The gusts were blowing hail up the side of the mountain into us at gusts upwards of 30 mph. There wasn't much talking as we made our way down as quickly as the conditions would allow. Once we got below tree line we starting getting shards of ice blowing into our faces as well as it broke off of twigs and branches.

We finally dropped enough elevation that the conditions calmed down. We stopped at an amazing spring just before the campground and filled up.

The campground itself was packed and we had trouble finding space. We settled in next to the bathroom, joined by section hiker Aquamarine. It got chilly pretty quickly and after the hail all day we all set up tents and turned in quickly.